Fellowship in woe doth woe assuage.
Quotations by:
Shakespeare, William
Moderate lamentation is the right of the dead,
excessive grief the enemy to the living.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 57ff [Lafew] (1602?)
(Source)
Love all, trust a few,
Do wrong to none.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 66ff [Countess] (1602?)
(Source)
There is no living, none,
If Bertram be away. ’Twere all one
That I should love a bright particular star
And think to wed it, he is so above me.
In his bright radiance and collateral light
Must I be comforted, not in his sphere.
Th’ ambition in my love thus plagues itself:
The hind that would be mated by the lion
Must die for love.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 89ff [Helena] (1602?)
(Source)
Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie,
Which we ascribe to Heaven.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 222-23 [Helena] (1602?)
(Source)
COUNTESS: Tell me thy reason why thou wilt marry.
FOOL: My poor body, madam, requires it. I am driven
on by the flesh, and he must needs go that the devil
drives.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 28ff (1602?)
(Source)
Oft expectation fails and most oft there
Where most it promises, and oft it hits
Where hope is coldest and despair most fits.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 160ff [Helena] (1602?)
(Source)
It is the show and seal of nature’s truth,
Where love’s strong passion is impress’d in youth:
By our remembrances of days foregone,
Such were our faults; — or then we thought them none.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 2, sc. 3, l. 134ff [Countess] (1602?)
(Source)
From lowest place when virtuous things proceed,
The place is dignified by the doer’s deed.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 2, sc. 3, l. 136ff (1602?)
(Source)
No legacy is so rich as honesty.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well that Ends Well, Act 3, sc. 5, l. 13 [Mariana] (1602?)
(Source)
The web of our life is a mingled yarn,
good and ill together.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 4, sc. 3, l. 73ff [First Lord] (1602?)
(Source)
Who knows himself a braggart,
Let him fear this; for it will come to pass
That every braggart shall be found an ass.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 4, sc. 3, l. 356ff [Parolles] (1602?)
(Source)
All’s well that ends well. Still the fine’s the crown.
Whate’er the course, the end is the renown.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 4, sc. 4, l. 39ff [Helena] (1602?)
(Source)
For we are old, and on our quick’st decrees
Th’ inaudible and noiseless foot of time
Steals ere we can effect them.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 5, sc. 3, l. 48ff [King of France] (1602?)
(Source)
If she, my liege, can make me know this clearly,
I’ll love her dearly, ever, ever dearly.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 5, sc. 3, l. 360ff [Bertram] (1602?)
(Source)
KING: All yet seems well, and if it end so meet,
The bitter past, more welcome is the sweet.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
All’s Well That Ends Well, Act 5, sc. 3, l. 378ff (1602?)
(Source)
We, ignorant of ourselves,
Beg often our own harms, which the wise powers
Deny us for our good; so find we profit
By losing of our prayers.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Antony and Cleopatra, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 7ff [Menas] (1607)
(Source)
Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale
Her infinite variety; other women cloy
The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry
Where most she satisfies.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Antony and Cleopatra, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 276ff [Enobarbus] (1607)
(Source)
When valor preys on reason,
It eats the sword it fights with.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Antony and Cleopatra, Act 3, sc. 13, ll. 240-41 [Enobarbus] (1607)
(Source)
To business that we love we rise betime
And go to ’t with delight.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Antony and Cleopatra, Act 4, sc. 4, l. 27ff [Antony] (1607)
(Source)
O,
how full of briers is this working-day world!William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 11ff [Rosalind] (1599)
(Source)
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 2, sc. 1, l. 12ff [Duke Senior] (1599)
(Source)
We that are true lovers run into strange capers.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 2, sc. 4, l. 53ff [Touchstone] (1599)
(Source)
Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy.
This wide and universal theater
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 2, sc. 7, l. 142ff [Duke Senior] (1599)
(Source)
All the world’s a stage,
And all the men and women merely players.
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts ….William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 2, sc. 7, l. 146ff [Jaques] (1599)
(Source)
[O]ne man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms.
Then the whining schoolboy with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress’ eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon’s mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 2, sc. 7, l. 149ff [Jaques] (1599)
(Source)
The thorny point
Of bare distress hath ta’en from me the show
Of smooth civility.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 2, sc. 7, l. 99ff [Orlando] (1599)
(Source)
Kindness, nobler ever than revenge.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 4, sc. 3, l. 135 [Oliver] (1599)
(Source)
I do now remember a saying,
“The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man
knows himself to be a fool.”William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 30ff [Touchstone] (1599)
(Source)
But, O, how bitter a thing it is to look into happiness through another man’s eyes!
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
As You Like It, Act 5, sc. 2, l. 45ff [Orlando] (1599)
(Source)
Hear me profess sincerely: had I a dozen sons, — each in my love alike, and none less dear than thine and my good Marcius, — I had rather had eleven die nobly for their country, than one voluptuously surfeit out of action.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Coriolanus, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 21ff. [Volumnia] (c. 1608)
(Source)
"Voluptuously surfeit out of action" = to die indulgent, idle, and lazy
FIRST OFFICER: That’s a brave fellow, but he’s vengeance proud and loves not the common people.
SECOND OFFICER: ’Faith, there hath been many great men that have flattered the people who ne’er loved them; and there be many that they have loved they know not wherefore; so that, if they love they know not why, they hate upon no better a ground. Therefore, for Coriolanus neither to care whether they love or hate him manifests the true knowledge he has in their disposition and, out of his noble carelessness, lets them plainly see ’t.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Coriolanus, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 5ff (c. 1608)
(Source)
Ingratitude is monstrous.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Coriolanus, Act 2, sc. 3, l. 10ff [Third Citizen] (c. 1607)
(Source)
Anger’s my meat; I sup upon myself,
And so shall starve with feeding.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Coriolanus, Act 2, sc. 4, l. 68ff [Volumnia] (c. 1608)
(Source)
His nature is too noble for the world.
He would not flatter Neptune for his trident
Or Jove for ‘s power to thunder. His heart’s his mouth;
What his breast forges, that his tongue must vent,
And, being angry, does forget that ever
He heard the name of death.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Coriolanus, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 326ff [Menenius] (c. 1608)
(Source)
Speaking of the title character.
You might have been enough the man you are
With striving less to be so.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Coriolanus, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 23ff [Volumnia] (c. 1607)
(Source)
Action is eloquence.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Coriolanus, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 95ff [Volumnia] (c. 1607)
(Source)
Let me have war, say I. It exceeds peace as far as day does night. It’s sprightly walking, audible, and full of vent. Peace is a very apoplexy, lethargy; mulled, deaf, sleepy, insensible; a getter of more bastard children than war’s a destroyer of men.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Coriolanus, Act 4, sc. 5, l. 244ff [First Servingman] (c. 1608)
(Source)
I’ll never
Be such a gosling to obey instinct; but stand,
As if a man were author of himself,
And knew no other kin.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Coriolanus, Act 5, sc. 3, l. 38ff [Coriolanus] (c. 1608)
(Source)
O,
Dissembling courtesy! How fine this tyrant
Can tickle where she wounds!William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Cymbeline, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 97ff [Imogen] (1611)
(Source)
Fear no more the heat o’ the sun,
Nor the furious winter’s rages;
Thou thy worldly task hast done,
Home art gone, and ta’en thy wages:
Golden lads and girls all must,
As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Cymbeline, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 331ff [Guiderius] (1611)
(Source)
Society is not comfort
To one not sociable.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Cymbeline, Act 4, sc. 2, l. 14ff [Imogen] (1611)
(Source)
Fortune brings in some boats that are not steered.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Cymbeline, Act 4, sc. 3, l. 54ff [Pisanio] (1611)
(Source)
Season your admiration for a while
With an attent ear, till I may deliver
Upon the witness of these gentlemen
This marvel to you.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 201ff [Horatio] (c. 1600)
(Source)
But, good my brother,
Do not, as some ungracious pastors do,
Show me the steep and thorny way to heaven,
Whiles, like a puffed and reckless libertine,
Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads
And recks not his own rede.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 50ff [Ophelia] (c. 1600)
(Source)
Those friends thou hast, and their adoption tried,
Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 68ff [Polonius] (c. 1600)
(Source)
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 84ff [Polonius] (c. 1600)
(Source)
O villain, villain, smiling, damnèd villain!
My tables — meet it is I set it down
That one may smile and smile and be a villain.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 1, sc. 5, l. 113ff [Hamlet] (c. 1600)
(Source)
There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 1, sc. 5, l. 187ff [Hamlet] (c. 1600)
(Source)
Brevity is the soul of wit.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 97ff [Polonius] (c. 1600)
(Source)
In full:
"Therefore, since brevity is the soul of wit,
And tediousness the limbs and outward flourishes,
I will be brief ...."
Doubt thou the stars are fire;
Doubt that the sun doth move;
Doubt truth to be a liar;
But never doubt I love.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 124ff [Hamlet] (c. 1600)
(Source)
A letter from Hamlet to Ophelia, read by Polonius.
Though this be madness, yet there is method in’t.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 223 [Polonius] (c. 1600)
(Source)
For there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 268ff [Hamlet] (c. 1600)
(Source)
Many wearing rapiers are afraid of goosequills.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 366ff [Rosencrantz] (c. 1600)
(Source)
Use every man after his desert, and who should ‘scape whipping?
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 2, sc. 2, l. 555ff [Hamlet] (c. 1600)
(Source)
Who would fardels bear,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
But that the dread of something after death,
The undiscovered country from whose bourn
No traveler returns, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others that we know not of?William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 84ff [Hamlet] (c. 1600)
(Source)
"Fardels" = "burdens"
Thus conscience does make cowards of us all,
And thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o’er with the pale cast of thought,
And enterprises of great pitch and moment
With this regard their currents turn awry
And lose the name of action.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 91ff [Hamlet] (c. 1600)
(Source)
"Conscience" in this case is used in its archaic form, as consciousness, awareness.
Be thou as chaste as ice, as pure as snow, thou shalt not escape calumny.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 147ff [Hamlet] (c. 1600)
(Source)
Lord, we know what we are but
know not what we may be.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 4, sc. 5, l. 48ff [Ophelia] (c. 1600)
(Source)
When sorrows come, they come not single spies,
But in battalions.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 4, sc. 5, l. 84ff [Claudius] (c. 1600)
(Source)
There’s a divinity that shapes our ends,
Rough-hew them how we will —William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 5, sc. 2, l. 11ff [Hamlet] (c. 1600)
(Source)
If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now, yet it will come. The readiness is all.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Hamlet, Act 5, sc. 2, l. 234ff [Hamlet] (c. 1600)
(Source)
Wisdom cries out in the streets, and no man regards it.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 1, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 94ff [Hal] (1597)
(Source)
If all the year were playing holidays,
To sport would be as tedious as to work,
But when they seldom come, they wished-for come,
And nothing pleaseth but rare accidents.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 1, Act 1, sc. 2, l. 211ff [Hal] (1597)
(Source)
GLENDOWER: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
HOTSPUR: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 1, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 55ff (1597)
(Source)
The better part of valour is discretion.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 1, Act 4, sc. 4, l. 122ff [Falstaff] (1597)
(Source)
For mine own part I could be well content
To entertain the lag end of my life
With quiet hours.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 1, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 24ff [Worcester] (1597)
(Source)
God befriend us as our cause is just.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 1, Act 5, sc. 1, l. 121ff [Henry] (1597)
(Source)
Lord, Lord, how this world is given to lying!
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 1, Act 5, sc. 4, l. 148ff [Falstaff] (1597)
(Source)
O thoughts of men accursed!
Past and to come seems best; things present, worst.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 2, Act 1, sc. 3, l. 112ff [Archbishop] (c. 1598)
(Source)
Canst thou, O partial sleep, give thy repose
To the wet sea-boy in an hour so rude,
And, in the calmest and most stillest night,
With all appliances and means to boot,
Deny it to a king? Then, happy low, lie down.
Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 2, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 26ff [Henry] (c. 1598)
(Source)
Are these things then necessities?
Then let us meet them like necessities.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 2, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 94ff [Henry] (c. 1598)
(Source)
Presume not that I am the thing I was;
For God doth know — so shall the world perceive —
That I have turn’d away my former self.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry IV, Part 2, Act 5, sc. 5, l. 60ff [Hal] (c. 1598)
(Source)
The strawberry grows underneath the nettle.
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry V, Act 1, sc. 1, l. 63 [Bishop of Ely] (1599)
(Source)
Self-love, my liege, is not so vile a sin
As self-neglecting.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry V, Act 2, sc. 4, l. 80ff [Dauphin] (1599)
(Source)
Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace, there’s nothing so becomes a man,
As modest stillness and humility:
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger;
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood,
Disguise fair nature with hard-favored rage ….William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry V, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 1ff [Henry] (1599)
(Source)
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game’s afoot;
Follow your spirit: and upon this charge,
Cry “God for Harry, England, and Saint George!”
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry V, Act 3, sc. 1, l. 34ff [Henry] (1599)
(Source)
PISTOL: Knocks go and come. God’s vassals drop and die,
[Sings] And sword and shield,
In bloody field,
Doth win immortal fame.BOY: Would I were in an alehouse in London! I would
give all my fame for a pot of ale, and safety.William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Henry V, Act 3, sc. 2, l. 9ff (1599)
(Source)
God almighty,
There is some soul of goodness in things evil,
Would men observingly distill it out.
For our bad neighbor makes us early stirrers,
Which is both healthful and good husbandry.
Besides, they are our outward consciences
And preachers to us all, admonishing
That we should dress us fairly for our end.
Thus may we gather honey from the weed
And make a moral of the devil himself.